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Occam's razor (also written as Ockham's razor and in Latin ''lex parsimoniae'', which means 'law of parsimony') is a problem-solving principle attributed to William of Ockham (c. 1287–1347), who was an English Franciscan friar and scholastic philosopher and theologian. The principle can be interpreted as Among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected. The application of the principle can be used to shift the burden of proof in a discussion. However, Alan Baker, who suggests this in the online ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', is careful to point out that his suggestion should not be taken generally, but only as it applies in a particular context, that is: philosophers who argue in opposition to metaphysical theories that involve an allegedly "superfluous ontological apparatus." Baker then notices that principles, including Occam's razor, are often expressed in a way that is unclear regarding which facet of "simplicity"—parsimony or elegance—the principle refers to, and that in a hypothetical formulation the facets of simplicity may work in different directions: a simpler description may refer to a more complex hypothesis, and a more complex description may refer to a simpler hypothesis. Solomonoff's theory of inductive inference is a mathematically formalized Occam's razor:〔Induction: From Kolmogorov and Solomonoff to De Finetti and Back to Kolmogorov JJ McCall - Metroeconomica, 2004 - Wiley Online Library.〕〔Foundations of Occam's Razor and parsimony in learning from ricoh.comD Stork - NIPS 2001 Workshop, 2001.〕 shorter computable theories have more weight when calculating the probability of the next observation, using all computable theories that perfectly describe previous observations. In science, Occam's razor is used as a heuristic technique (discovery tool) to guide scientists in the development of theoretical models, rather than as an arbiter between published models.〔Hugh G. Gauch, ''Scientific Method in Practice, Cambridge University Press'', 2003, ISBN 0-521-01708-4, ISBN 978-0-521-01708-4.〕〔Roald Hoffmann, Vladimir I. Minkin, Barry K. Carpenter, Ockham's Razor and Chemistry, HYLE—International Journal for Philosophy of Chemistry, Vol. 3, pp. 3–28, (1997).〕 In the scientific method, Occam's razor is not considered an irrefutable principle of logic or a scientific result; the preference for simplicity in the scientific method is based on the falsifiability criterion. For each accepted explanation of a phenomenon, there may be an extremely large, perhaps even incomprehensible, number of possible and more complex alternatives, because one can always burden failing explanations with ad hoc hypothesis to prevent them from being falsified; therefore, simpler theories are preferable to more complex ones because they are more testable.〔Elliott Sober, Let's Razor Occam's Razor, pp. 73–93, from Dudley Knowles (ed.) Explanation and Its Limits, Cambridge University Press (1994).〕 ==History== The term ''Occam's razor'' first appeared in 1852 in the works of Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet (1788–1856), centuries after William of Ockham's death in 1347. Ockham did not invent this "razor"—its association with him may be due to the frequency and effectiveness with which he used it (Ariew 1976). Ockham stated the principle in various ways, but the most popular version, "Entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity" ''(Non sunt multiplicanda entia sine necessitate)'' was formulated by the Irish Franciscan philosopher John Punch in his 1639 commentary on the works of Duns Scotus.〔Johannes Poncius’s commentary on John Duns Scotus's ''Opus Oxoniense,'' book III, dist. 34, q. 1. in John Duns Scotus ''Opera Omnia'', vol.15, Ed. Luke Wadding, Louvain (1639), reprinted Paris: Vives, (1894) p.483a〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Occam's razor」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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